I am staying at home. Mugging, working, and yes, this bit of blogging.
Look forward and yet dread going back in 2 weeks time. Argh! May got to be a record month, Washington, NYC, Singapore. 3 consecutive trips. I calculated that I will spend 40++ hours flying this month.
A quick analysis of my You Tube postings shows that I am ...
-emotional
-defeatist?
-defiant...
what else?
I finished my My Sister's Keeper 
Ok, I admit I cheated. I skipped some pages. I scanned, and skipped some pages.
That is really a moving book, definitely worth its place on top of the charts. This books reminds me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. 
Tissue papers are not cheap here-like 1 quid per box?? or 50 p when there is offers. I have never bought a box since I arrived!I rather spend the quid on getting a book. Ok.. this sounds very "auntie".
Today I went to the local library to get some books. Got to keep up my reading thing :)
I finished reading Save Karyn- cover to cover yesterday evening :). AUthor? Karyn Bosnak.
Was this a film? I bet so, funny i did not notice it at all. That shows how pathetic my life is for the couple of years. Missed films. Missed books. Missed everything. Thanks to the books, Chimes did not manage to make me part with 1 single penny, despite everything screaming sales! I am also putting off that 29.99 boots from clarks, because I am going to swindon on 27th to SHOP!!!!
Yes, SH, and I will shop shop shop.. while the men got to bear with us, since we were working so hard to save them tonnes of money. I am gonna see if the stuff will really be much cheaper there. I know boots like that would cost probably around 20 quid is Bicester, and Bicester is having sales from early January! If SH is going, maybe i could visit her and go with her. I can see why the men regret introducing the two of us. In fact I think hubby regret introducing me to any of his friends' WAGS cos I alway hit it off with them, and we always end up happily going out for shopping trips.
I originally planned to get some good books from teh shops, but greatly disappointed. I believe you can judge a nation/city/town by the stock of their bookshops. The nearby bookshops have lots of poetry, literature, history, philosophy-great, but these are not what I am looking for at the moment! For that, I got to plan a trip to the book Mecca in Oxford, or charring cross.
I am determined to learn enough to order dishes and wine/champagne in a restaurant properly.
BBC's website actually have free video lessons!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/
I love BBC :)
Other than french, they have other languages as well. Italian will be next.. what else.. Japanese? Thai? Well, any country with yummy food. :)
Now that I am learning a new language my brain cells' death rate could hopefully slow down.
urrrrr.. how do you say good bye? Bonjour? no? Sayonara??
By the way, Oliver is supposed to be a boy's name and Olivia a girl's name?
Oliver is now in top ten hit of fav boys name. Thanks to Jamie Oliver?? hehehe Jamie Oliver is my ou xiang of a man who can cook and do great deeds!!!
Olivia?? Urgh....
My most shocking discovery, (thanks to my baby name googling colleagues) is Lucy is making a comeback!! LUCYYYYYYYY!!! Awww.
I have been feeling really really tired from my work. And have been using whatever left that from my strength to read THE devil Wears Prada.
That Miranda Priestly was indeed worth her Pradas and Chanel. However, the ending was an all too predictable thing. Hate these kind of books. Maybe that it why is a chick lit. Sigh. Just like Lipstick Jungle. Good too read to keep up with what corporate America's latest fetishes are... but.......
just forget the story line.
Sumerians..Egyptians etc etc
Visited the British Museum (yes, again)
This time I came out with a conclusion.
We eat too damn much!!!
Look at the pottery of the earlier civilisations, their "vessels", their "plates", and their "bowls". Phi tried to tell me those storage jars might be "cups", but I was determined to have none of it. Look at the size of that God damn bracelets! I cant fit in!!
Sigh.. I MUST LOSE WEIGHT
THE MUMMIES and sumerians were telling me to.
Note: TAlking about death. I saw a woman walking pass, stopped, placed flower on the hedges of the house across the road.
So, it is that house. I had tried to imagine that it was further away, but no, no. With all the leaves dead and off, I can see the house so clearly. Poor woman.
15 Nov 2006-2007 Quota-110 books
Since 15th Nov,
(1st Jan 2007)
(this is 
"£1 for 1 bag of books"
Saw this in my local library. I walked pass it, and thought that from previous experience, I might not be able to find anything there. But.. slowly, one by one, the gems appeared.
The stuff I got:
Suddenly missed London terribly when Hubby MSNed me the price of a book; £8 for a 400+ paged book called “The Poker Face of Wall Street”. Sigh...
If there is something great about London, BOOKS will definitely be part of it. Books books books!!! Books on any subjects! Brand new, second hand or even leather bound family heirlooms and antiques! Books on any subject, at any price. Books are just so affordable there. Yup, it cost less than a fast food meal for a paperback.
I am a nosey as ever. Despite the English’s privacy thing, I managed to peep into people's homes during my long walks, and also into people’s cars and vans. Ok, I admit most of my walks are around the Notting Hill area, (yup, that area and THAT book store), so it is not a reflective sampling of London. But hey, at least in these areas, I noticed a really strong love for books!!!
I saw piles of books in the cars' back seats. I saw a good pile of sci-fis’ in a plumber’s van (which I happily told hubby… “Look! Plumbers here read more than you!!”, and which as usual he would conveniently ignore such "insults" from me). I see basements filled with book cases, I see people relaxing on balconies, gardens, parks, or riding Tubes and buses and having a good read. I see young kids clutching books (“real” books, not TEXT books!!).
And in my charity store, I know regulars who pop-in, at least once a week to grab a book and pay £2, and return a few days later to “return” (ie donate) the books, and spend another £2-3 on another book. I also had a woman (OK, "lady" would be more appropriate) coming in with 3 large suitcases of books (sans maids). Her books were obviously read through many times (can see the thumbing stains), and with price tags from all over the world. Yup, from pesos to AUS$, RM to US$.
Throng the Notting Hill Gate area, and you will see a few book stores in just that high street alone, and we are not even talking about second hand book shops and charity stores or walking down to High Street Kensington! The bookshops in London are BUZZING!!!! Yup! Waterstone’s, Books etc….. and we are not even talking about Charring Cross Road which is bubbling with BOOK SHOPS!!! Even Oxfam run bookshops!
Even if you are DAMN broke, and cannot spare 50p (which is the cost of a pee in some tourist areas) for a book, fret not. The public libraries are FANTASTIC!!!
15 books at one go, 3-week loan! You can renew by calling them. Elderly, disabled? They deliver to you! (That started my “retire here!!” thought) And yeah, when greedy me borrowed huge piles, the friendly librarians would always offer me free bags to cart them home. Wow, I never had that from the libraries! And you get NEW titles there! They order multiple copies of chart toppers, and display them prominently, so that busy people could still dash in a “grab” a good book. Unlike here… where I got to pay to reserve or wait long LONGGGGG, I managed to read quite a number of top sellers there.
If there is something I LUV A LOT about London, it is the BOOKS. Yup, BOOKS!
Stop sniggering… I am a book worm, I know. At least I am a happy worm in London, cos books are affordable there! When I am here, I see I sigh, I leave. So depressing.
Shhh.. needless to say, Oxford is also a fantastic place for books. I went there and “got lost” in the shops. Ha...ha… The best day so far was a day spent lazing around in an old church’s backyard, facing the magnificient dome of the theatre, with a book in hand , and coffee from The Vault. That was a perfect summer day for me. When i go back, i wil take the megabus.com's £1 offer, just to go there and get lost in the book shops (...and of course ogle, and salivate at the handsome aristrocratic ie Prince William-type-of- look students there!!!)
